This innovative, integrated, bi-stable device for parallel/series reconfiguration allows 800-volt vehicles to effectively charge via a 400-volt charger. While also offering numerous benefits compared to traditional solutions.

“At Eaton, we’re leveraging our extensive background in developing electrified mobility solutions to launch this promising new technology. In partnership with Munich Electrification, which specializes in developing cutting-edge battery management systems,” said Mark Schneider, president, Eaton’s eMobility. “There are a lot of 800-volt vehicles in the market. But many charging stations can only supply 400-volt power. BCS provides charging flexibility to consumers who want access to an expanded network of DC chargers.”

Designed for automotive, light commercial and UTV applications. Eaton’s BCS enables the reduction of up to 12 components in a battery disconnect unit. Simplifying the system and streamlining packaging and assembly. Furthermore, the BCS minimizes contact resistance. Enhancing overall system efficiency and performance by reducing the number of contact points required by conventional contactors.

Ensuring higher EV safety standards

Ensuring higher EV safety standards, the BCS has a mechanical interlock that prevents pack short circuits due to crashes, software bugs, or contactor malfunctions. The BCS can also maintain stable conditions when the electronic control unit loses power. Its bi-stable nature enhances efficiency during normal operations. By eliminating the hold current of a traditional contactor, and also provides resilience against low voltage faults by maintaining a safe condition for a wide range of potential failure modes.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Eaton in launching this groundbreaking new technology developed by our outstanding R&D team,” said Uwe Wiedeman, managing director, Munich Electrification. “Munich Electrification’s legacy of innovation in the EV battery industry combined with Eaton’s expertise in electrical switching and automotive manufacturing is helping us to solve our customers’ biggest challenges together.”

Eaton BCS Technology

Learn about Eaton’s BCS technology and other vehicle electrification solutions.

Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for people everywhere. We make products for the data center, utility, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace, and mobility markets. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably, and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we’re accelerating the planet’s transition to renewable energy sources, helping to solve the world’s most urgent power management challenges, and building a more sustainable society for people today and generations to come

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Polestar and fast-charging battery pioneer StoreDot have successfully demonstrated the implementation of StoreDot’s Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) technology in a car for the first time, charging a Polestar 5 prototype from 10-80% in just 10 minutes. The fully driveable verification prototype saw a consistent charge rate starting at 310 kW and rising to a peak in excess of 370 kW at the end of charging.

This world-first demonstration of a 10-minute 10-80% extreme fast charge using silicon-dominant cells in a driveable vehicle – rather than individual cells in a laboratory environment – is the continuation of Polestar’s commitment to developing the best driving experience for the future through innovative technology partnerships. The specially commissioned 77 kWh battery pack – which has the potential to be increased to at least 100 kWh, could add 320 km of range to a mid-sized electric car in 10 minutes.

XFC test by Polestar and StoreDot battery engineers

This XFC test by Polestar and StoreDot battery engineers was designed to demonstrate proof-of-concept for XFC battery technology that could be applied to future Polestar vehicles.

Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO, says: “Time is one of life’s greatest luxuries, and as a manufacturer of luxury electric performance cars, we need to take the next step to address one of the biggest barriers to EV ownership – charging anxiety. With this new technology, on longer journeys when drivers do stop they’ll be able to spend less time charging and be back on the road faster than before. In fact, that stop time will be more akin to what they experience with a petrol car today.”

StoreDot’s revolutionary XFC technology utilises silicon-dominant cells with an energy density on par with state-of-the-art NMC cells, and does not require specialist cooling systems in the vehicle. The experimental XFC battery’s modules have a structural function which, improves mechanical properties and cooling ability while maintaining or reducing weight levels, with high recyclability and serviceability also paramount in the design of the pack.

commercial EV batteries, fast charging rates can vary greatly

In today’s commercial EV batteries, fast charging rates can vary greatly depending on the battery’s state of charge (SOC), sometimes dropping significantly as SOC increases. During this test, Polestar saw charging speed rise from 310 kW at 10% SOC to over 370 kW at 80% SOC, proving the technology’s steady charging rate with no significant change in charging speed or efficiency whenever a driver decides to stop within this wide state-of-charge range.

Importantly, the test proves XFC technology works with today’s DC charging infrastructure, which continues to feature more high-power DC chargers of 350 kW or higher.

This means drivers will be able to spend less time stopped to charge their vehicle, which for a 10-80% charge on many modern EVs could still take around 30 minutes. By reducing that time to 10 minutes, the charging time for a vehicle with XFC technology is much closer to what you would experience when filling a car with petrol. And thanks to the consistent charge speeds on offer, with a suitable charger, consumers could stop for five minutes at 50% SOC and continue their journey with over 80% SOC.

Dr Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot, comments: “We are very excited to share this impressive achievement today and proud to be on this journey with Polestar. Polestar’s commitment to acknowledge that extreme fast charging technology is necessary to make widespread electric car adoption a reality. This breakthrough revolutionises ownership by eradicating the barrier of range and charging anxiety once and for all as drivers will be able to travel long distances with the same freedom and convenience as traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles.”

A film showing the testing procedure can be found here: https://www.polestar.com/global/news/how-we-charged-a-polestar-in-10-minutes/

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The United States has only 0.128 million charging stations

The latest data on the availability of publicly available charging stations suggests that China is doing far better than any other developed economy. As per the latest data from IEA via Statista, China EV has already installed 1.76 million charging stations for EVs. China EV also boasts of a healthy proportion of fast-charging stations too, as 760,000 charging stations out of the total have fast-charging capability. South Korea is far behind in the second spot with a total of 0.21 million (210,000) charging stations, but only 21,000 are capable of fast charging.

The United States is in the third spot worldwide, with a total of 128,000 publicly available charging stations. Thus, the number of electric charging stations in China is more than 14 times the number in the USA. If we look at the density of charging stations population-wise, China still outperforms the US, as the Chinese population is only slightly more than four times that of the US population. Furthermore, out of 128,000 charging stations in the US, only 28,000 are fast-charging ones.

Top Ten

The rest of the top ten list consists of Western European nations and Japan. The Netherlands and France are next, with 124,300 and 83,700 public charging stations, respectively. However, when it comes to fast charging stations, France has 9700 while the Netherlands has only 4300.

Germany and the United Kingdom are the next with 77,000 and 50,600 charging stations, respectively, followed by Italy with 37,500 stations. Japan and Norway complete the top ten with 29,400 and 24,100 charging stations. However, it is worth noting that Norway has more fast charging stations than several countries on the list.

It has been evident for some time that Electric Vehicles are the future of the automobile industry. In recent years, many countries have also announced incentives like subsidies to encourage customers to switch to EVs. However, no other country seems to be as equipped as China to usher in the electric era.

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• StoreDot is partnering with VinES to develop XFC battery cells and plan for commercialisation
• Agreement will focus on the development of several XFC types of cell form-factors, expected to be adopted on VinFast vehicles starting from 2025

The agreement follows the already announced strategic investment of VinFast into StoreDot (Series D, January 2022); marking a new milestone in the cell technology development between both companies and helping them to promote advanced battery technology and prepare to introduce XFC battery solutions for the green mobility market, including VinFast’s smart electric vehicles.

The agreement will see both companies embark on a collaboration to jointly research, develop and offer extreme fast charge (XFC) battery cells in different form-factors, in preparation for XFC battery mass production and supply. StoreDot will license and share its proprietary XFC technology whereas VinES will provide and contribute its know-how and experience with multiple form factor development, manufacturing, validation and global supply chain network.

The first generation of this XFC battery cell is expected to be commercially available in 2025 and immediately adopted by VinFast vehicles.

Dr. Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO said:

“We’re delighted to be partnering with VinES and further cementing our long-standing relationships with Vingroup and VinFast. This venture is an important one for us as we look to build more partnerships with companies at every level of the EV battery ecosystem such as Vingroup. I’m confident that the combination of our XFC cell chemistry and VinES’s complimentary form-factor development, manufacturing, evaluation, certification, and supply chain capabilities will deliver world-class market leading EV batteries that will raise the bar further for the industry.”

Talking about the partnership, Ms Pham Thuy Linh, CEO of VinES said:

“The partnership with StoreDot reflects VinES’ s complimentary strategies by combining global innovative technologies with those in-house in our state-of-the-art production of electric vehicle batteries in Vietnam. With the XFC technology, we believe it will offer improved customers’ experience, provide cost savings and remove charging time anxiety entirely. With StoreDot’s team of talented scientists and experienced experts, combined with our know-how in multiple form-factor development, real production experiences, we are excited to work towards a near-future commercialisation of the XFC technology and contribute to the acceleration of the EV revolution globally.”

Last year, StoreDot revealed its ‘100inX’ strategic technology roadmap. This featured 100in5, 100in3 and 100in2 of miles (or 160 km) per minute of charging – three generations of StoreDot technologies of silicon-dominant XFC, semi solid state and post-lithium architecture. The roadmap reaffirms that the timings for these will be delivered over the coming decade with 100in5 by 2024, 100in3 by 2028 and 100in2 by 2032.

StoreDot has a long-standing relationship with conglomerate Vingroup. In January last year leading Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast (a Vingroup company) was the lead investor in StoreDot’s Series D funding round of up to $80 million USD.

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A new type of silicon carbide semiconductor and a newly developed copper wire as thin as a human hair. These two factors have suddenly made transmitting high power through air a realistic proposition.

Inductive charging is the new thing

Electric toothbrushes have been doing it for decades. And, in recent years, mobile phones and other portable electronics have picked up the technology. But until now, the wireless charging option had seemed too complex and ineffective for the high power of electric vehicle batteries.

However, inductive charging for battery vehicles seems to have made a breakthrough, especially when frequent charging is needed and the environment is demanding;  urban electric ferries , for example.

Charge without human help or a robotic arm

This means that electric ferries which regularly traverse urban waterways would not need human help or a robotic arm to charge their batteries. The same applies to city buses or the driverless electric vehicles used in industry, mining and agriculture.

Yujing Liu, Professor of Electric Power Engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers, is focusing closely on renewable energy conversion and electrification of the transportation system.

“You can have a system built into the wharf that charges the ferry at some stops while passengers get on and off. Automatic and completely independent of weather and wind, charging can take place 30-40 times per day. This is probably the most obvious application,” says Professor Liu.

“Even for the electric trucks of the future, there is a potential application. The issue then is that charging these at sufficiently high power means the charging cable is very thick, heavy and difficult to handle”.

New possibilities due to advancements in materials

According to Liu, it is the rapid development of a handful of components and materials in recent years that has opened up new possibilities.

“A key factor is that we now have access to high-power semiconductors based on silicon carbide, known as ‘SiC components’. As a power source for electronic products, these have only been on the market a few years. They allow us to use higher voltages, higher temperatures and much higher switching frequencies, compared to traditional silicon-based components”, he says.

This is important because it’s the frequency of the magnetic field that limits how much power can be transferred between two coils of a given size.

Frequencies four times higher – electric ferries 

“Previous systems for vehicle wireless charging have used frequencies of around 20 kHz, much like a normal stove top. They became bulky and the energy transfer wasn’t very efficient. Now we work with frequencies that are four times higher. Suddenly, induction becomes attractive”, explains Liu.

He adds that his research group is in close contact with the two world-leading manufacturers of SiC modules in the world.

“With them, rapid product development is underway towards even higher currents, voltages and power. Every two or three years, new versions are launched which can take more. Such components are important “enablers”, with a wide range of applications in fields like electric vehicles. So not just for inductive charging”.

Another recent technological leap concerns the copper wires in the coils that send and receive the oscillating magnetic field that forms the actual bridge for the energy to flow across the air gap. The goal is to use as high a frequency as possible.

“That won’t work with ordinary looped copper coils. It would lead to very large losses at high frequency”, says Liu.

The new coils are made of braided “copper ropes”. These comprise up to 10,000 copper fibres, each between 70 and 100 microns thick, much like a strand of hair.

These braids of what is known as Litz wires are optimised for high currents and frequencies and have only been commercially available in the last few years.

A third example that Liu highlights is a new type of capacitor used to add reactive power. This is a prerequisite if the coil is to build up a sufficiently powerful magnetic field. On the other hand, the magnetic field is still very weak, even when positioned between charging plates. The stray field decays dramatically as the distance from the charging plates increases. Within about half a meter, it diminishes to the internationally required level for public exposure.

Liu emphasises that charging electric vehicles entails several conversion steps; between direct current and alternating current and between different voltage levels.

“So, when we say that we’ve achieved an efficiency of 98 per cent from direct current in the charging station to the battery, that figure may not mean much if you don’t carefully define what’s measured,” explains Liu.

“But you can also put it this way: losses occur whether you use ordinary cable-based conductive charging or charge by using induction. The efficiency we’ve now achieved means that the losses in inductive charging can be almost as low as with a conductive charging system. The difference is so small as to be practically negligible. It’s about one or two per cent”.

Numbers attract attention- electric ferries 

Liu adds that the results published by his research group have attracted a lot of attention.

“We’re probably among the best in the world in terms of efficiency in this power class, between 150 and 500 kW”.

Liu doesn’t think that induction charging will eventually replace charging with a cable.

“I drive an electric car myself and can’t see that I’d have any use for induction charging in the future. I drive home, plug in… it’s no problem”.

Is wireless charging a more sustainable technology than charging in the usual way?

“One probably shouldn’t claim that the technology itself is more sustainable. But it can make things easier when electrifying large vehicles and thus speed up the phase-out of things like diesel ferries.

For more information, please contact:

Yujing Liu, Professor of Electrical Power Engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers
yujing.liu@chalmers.se, +46 31 772 16 60

Facts about induction charging for electric ferries 

• Charging by induction means that current can be transferred over a short distance; through air, water, and other such non-metallic materials – without any contact or conductor.
• The principle is the same as in the induction cookers found in many kitchens. A high-frequency alternating current passed through a coil produces an oscillating magnetic field.
• But unlike cooking, where the aim is heat development, inductive charging means that a second coil (on board the vehicle) captures the energy in a magnetic field and converts it into alternating current again. Following rectification, it can then recharge the batteries.
• The heat generated in the process means that part of the energy being transferred will be lost. Thus, minimising heating as much as possible is an important goal in developing this technology.

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